WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 57 



searching the field apparently for some favourite 

 grub is evidence in his favour that he is not so entirely 

 guilty as he has been represented of innocent blood : 

 no bird could be approached in that way. All is 

 done in a jerky, nervous manner. As he turns side- 

 ways the white feathers show with a flash above the 

 green corn ; another movement, and he looks all 

 black. 



It is more difficult to get near the larger birds upon 

 the downs than in the meadows, because of the absence 

 of- cover ; the hedge here is so low, and the gateway 

 open and bare, without the overhanging oak of the 

 meadows, whose sweeping boughs snatch and retain 

 wisps of the hay from the top of a wagon-load as 

 it passes under. The gate itself is dilapidated per- 

 haps only a rail, or a couple of " flakes " fastened 

 together with tar-cord : there are no cattle here to 

 require strong fences. 



.In the young beans yonder the wood pigeons are 

 busy too busy for the farmer : they have a habit, 

 as they rise and hover about their feeding-places, of 

 suddenly shooting up into the air, and as suddenly 

 sinking again to the level of their course, describing 

 a line roughly resembling the outline of a tent if 

 drawn on paper, a cone whose sides droop inward 

 somewhat. They do this too over the ash woods where 

 they breed, or the fir trees ; it is not done when they 

 are travelling straight ahead on a journey. 



The odour of the bean -flower lingering on the air in 

 the early summer is delicious ; in autumn when cut 



